Ex-stopper back with Rockets

Four years removed from his last game with the Kelowna Rockets, Adam Brown is back—this time as a member of the coaching staff.

Among the 24-year-old Yorba Linda, CA native’s duties will be assisting fellow coach Travis Crickard with the team’s goaltenders and looking after video for Rockets home games.

“I’m really enjoying it so far, really happy to get the opportunity to come back and work with the team,” Brown said following a team practise this week at Prospera Place. “The coaching staff we have here really welcomed me and I’m learning a lot every day from everybody around the rink here. They’ve taken me under the wing and shown me the ropes.”

Brown played goal for the Rockets from 2008 to 2012, playing in 200 regular season games and 17 more in the post season.

Brown spent his first three seasons as a pro in the East Coast Hockey League, split between Colorado, Georgia and Hamilton, Ont.

After one more stop last season in Sweden, Brown pondered whether a career change just might be in order.

It wasn’t long before discussions with Rockets’ president and GM Bruce Hamilton led to an offer Brown couldn’t refuse.

“Kelowna is where I’ve been spending most of my summers, so when I came back I had to decide if I wanted to keep playing or move on and choose a different path,” he said. “Talking to Bruce, this opportunity came up and it was one I couldn’t pass up. Obviously having a chance to play here is one thing, but be able to come back for a second time is not something that happens often in an organization like this.”

For Brown, the coaching genes just happen to run in the family.

Currently an assistant with Arizona Coyotes, his dad, Newell Brown, has worked on the staffs of six different NHL teams since 1996.

In addition to his new job with the Rockets, Adam Brown is also working this season as a goaltending coach with Kelowna Minor Hockey.